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A review by lediamond4
The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari by Paul Theroux
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
3.5
So here’s the deal: I’m attempting a “Read Around the World” challenge. There are two main “rules”: the primary location has to be that country (so not too much traveling) and the author should be from that country. I and had an extremely difficult time finding literature for Angola that fit my criteria, a fact that the author actually touches on this book. It’s not my first compromise and I know it won’t be the last. I plan to revisit these countries once I’m initially finished to see if I can find anything beyond what I’ve found in my library’s system.
For the time being, I thought this was a decent fit. Paul Theroux is certainly not from Angola, but he spent time there as a young man working as a teacher. He then returns to Africa decades later and spends a large majority of this second trip in Angola. Missed on the first rule but I think it met the second rule.
I learned a lot about Angola, both its history and its current state. Theroux covers a lot of ground, writing about the political, social, and economic issues both past and present. He writes very visually about this country and I believe that he knows what he’s talking about. So yeah, as a “first visit” I’m fairly satisfied.
Ironically, when Theroux first ventured into Angola I did start to lose his intentions behind writing this book. Africa starts out pretty romanticized even though Theroux definitely goes off the beaten path. It was an interesting balance. However, but things take a depressing turn once Theroux enters Angola and the book becomes an intensely detailed account of the extreme poverty, the violent crime rate, and the diseases that the people who live there face on a daily basis.
I don’t take issue with either halves, the problem is that I don’t think they fit together to make a coherent whole. Theroux’s writing is both visual and educational, and I never struggled reading it, I just wish that it was more consistent in its focus.
For the time being, I thought this was a decent fit. Paul Theroux is certainly not from Angola, but he spent time there as a young man working as a teacher. He then returns to Africa decades later and spends a large majority of this second trip in Angola. Missed on the first rule but I think it met the second rule.
I learned a lot about Angola, both its history and its current state. Theroux covers a lot of ground, writing about the political, social, and economic issues both past and present. He writes very visually about this country and I believe that he knows what he’s talking about. So yeah, as a “first visit” I’m fairly satisfied.
Ironically, when Theroux first ventured into Angola I did start to lose his intentions behind writing this book. Africa starts out pretty romanticized even though Theroux definitely goes off the beaten path. It was an interesting balance. However, but things take a depressing turn once Theroux enters Angola and the book becomes an intensely detailed account of the extreme poverty, the violent crime rate, and the diseases that the people who live there face on a daily basis.
I don’t take issue with either halves, the problem is that I don’t think they fit together to make a coherent whole. Theroux’s writing is both visual and educational, and I never struggled reading it, I just wish that it was more consistent in its focus.